Benjamin Fernandes

CEO

NALA, Tanzania

Biography

Benjamin Fernandes is a Tanzanian award-winning speaker and national television personality. He worked at The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in the United States in their Digital Team and Financial Services team. He is the first Tanzanian to attend Stanford Graduate School of Business as an Africa MBA Fellow and the youngest African to ever be accepted to Stanford Graduate School of Business. In 2017, Fernandes became the first Tanzanian in history to attend both Stanford Graduate School of Business (MBA) and Harvard Kennedy School of Government for an executive education program.

In January 2018, Fernandes was listed by Africa Youth Awards as the 15th Most Influential Young Tanzanian for the year 2017.

Fernandes currently is the founder and CEO of a fintech start up called NALA in Tanzania. NALA’s goal is to become a digital bank for Sub-Saharan Africa that works offline. When Fernandes isn’t thinking about digital financial services, he spends time volunteering and teaching at various universities in Tanzania.